The present invention pertains to wireless communication, and more particularly to the use of smart cards and security components and security chips in wireless communication devices.
A smart card is a memory and/or microprocessor chip embedded in a plastic card for easy carrying and usage, most commonly as a smart card based payment card (such as a Eurocard-Mastercard-Visa (EMV) card or a so-called e-purse) or as a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in wireless terminals, such as in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). A microprocessor chip of a smart card also often contains advanced security features that protect the data in the memory. Smart cards with only memory are called memory cards; smart cards with a microprocessor chip and memory are called microprocessor cards. A memory card stores data but cannot manipulate the data, and can be considered similar to a floppy disk, except that such a card also includes security features such as authenticated access to memory and copy protection of memory contents against unauthorized access. A microprocessor card can add, delete, and otherwise manipulate information in a memory on the card, and is like a miniature computer, having an input and output port, an operating system, and persistent memory (such as a hard disk or other non-volatile memory device), but with built-in security features. Microprocessor card functionality is defined by and can be changed with software applications that are installed to card.
Smart cards have two different types of interfaces: contact interfaces and contactless interfaces, otherwise known as radiofrequency (RF) interfaces. A contact smart card must be inserted into a contact card reader to interface with other systems. For example, a smart card can hold in memory either an indication of funds from which a ticket can be purchased from a ticketing system, or can hold in memory an indication of a number of tickets already paid for and not yet used, in which case the smart card interfaces with the ticketing system to use a ticket. In either case, the ticketing system would read the memory of the smart card to determine the current balance (of either funds or tickets not already used), subtract either the price of a ticket or reduce the number of tickets by one, and write the new balance to the memory.
When using a contact smart card, the contact card reader (of for example a ticketing system) makes contact with electrical connectors on the card (leading to the chip) and via the connectors, transfers data to and from the chip (memory on the chip). Contactless smart cards are passed near a contactless card reader, having an antenna and RF module on the card, in order to carry out a transaction (such as using a ticket as above). Contactless cards are preferable in cases where transactions must be processed quickly, as in mass transit or toll collection, or where the reader needs high availability as RF reading does not wear out electrical contacts or mechanical elements of a reader.
Some cards include only one or another of the two kinds of interfaces, and some, called dual interface cards, include both kinds.
In wireless communications via a cellular communications network, such as provided by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), smart cards called SIM (subscriber identity module) cards, which are microprocessor smart cards, provide secure user authentication, secure roaming, and a platform for value-added services. The SIM card (i.e. the microprocessor on the SIM card) can be programmed to carry multiple applications, such as a credit card applications (to allow debits and credits to a credit card account, or a ticketing application, to allow buying tickets). In such a case, the SIM card should act as a contactless (memory or microprocessor) smart card, communicating with for example a ticketing system via RF communications according to ISO (international standards organization) 14443 (as opposed to RF for cellular communications, as for example for communicating with a radio access network of GSM). The activation of new applications can be downloaded to the card over the air, in real time, via the cellular communication network. Some wireless communication devices today also include contact and/or contactless (memory or microprocessor) smart cards that are distinct from the SIM card.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a prior art mobile terminal 10 including a dual-interface smart card 14 (which may be a SIM, or may be another, distinct smart card) having a contact interface 14a and a contactless interface 14b, and shows the smart card communicating with a ticketing system 11 via its contactless interface (the ticketing system including a contactless card reader 15 and a back end, i.e. the rest of the ticketing system after the card reader), and also communicating with a terminal interface module 12 of the mobile terminal 10 via the contact interface (the terminal interface including a contact card reader 12a). FIG. 2 shows the contact interface 14b of the smart card 14 of FIG. 1 in more detail, and indicates the antenna used to provide the contactless interface 14b. In all the contactless smart cards according to the prior art, an antenna per ISO standard 14443, is embedded in the card, and when such a card is enclosed in a cellular communication device, the antenna must be moved to the outside of the device. ISO standard series 7816-X governs all aspects of the smart card and its contact interface, including (in 7816-4) common format of commands and basic commands and responses to include the application protocol data unit (the command exchange format independent of the transport protocol).
In FIG. 1, the smart card 14 might host a ticketing application (in which case the card is a microprocessor smart card) or might hold only ticket data (so that the card could then be a simple memory card). In case the smart card 14 hosts a ticketing application, in order to purchase a ticket (for example to get on a bus or a subway), the ticketing application interacts with the ticketing system 11 and is authenticated, and then the ticketing application deducts the cost of the ticket from the balance of a ticket account stored in the smart card application. In case of a memory card, the memory holding a ticket account is read by the ticketing system 11 and the ticketing system then re-writes the balance in the ticket account reduced by the cost of the ticket. In either case, since the smart card reader of the ticketing application is a contactless reader, the mobile terminal 10 in which the smart card 14 resides, is waved (swiped) near to the card reader of the ticketing system so as to prompt the card reader and thereby initiate the ticket-purchase (or use) transaction as described above. The smart card 14 might be the SIM card of the mobile terminal 10, or it might be another smart card. The smart card 14 is a dual-interface card, having both a contact interface 14a and a contactless interface 14b, to allow for downloading, via the cellular network and then via the contact interface, new tokens (for purchasing tickets) or other ticket-purchasing funds. In addition, the contact interface can be used to allow a user of the mobile terminal to browse the memory of the smart card, for example to determine the number of tokens left in the ticket account.
The smart card 14 is controlled, via either interface 14a 14b, with so-called APDU (Application Protocol Data Units) commands, defined in ISO standard 7816-4 or defined for the application in separate specifications. (ISO standard 7816-4 defines the common format and some common commands, but there is a separate specification for smart card credit cards that defines a set of commands for such smart cards, and the same is true for GSM SIM smart cards.) RF access to smart cards is defined in multiple ISO standards, but especially ISO standard 14443, mentioned above. Also, the terminology APDU is used here both in the smart card specific sense of ISO standard 7816-4, and also, when used to refer to communication traffic not intended for the smart card, according to other standards. For example, communication traffic destined for the wireless terminal MCU (microcontroller unit) is in the form of APDUs, although not the same APDUs as defined for smart cards, and is nonetheless indicated simply as APDUs in the description that follows.
As also mentioned above, putting a smart card with a contactless interface into a mobile terminal requires moving the antenna for the card to the outside of the mobile terminal (otherwise, the mobile terminal casing will block the RF signals to and from the smart card). When the antenna is taken out of the smart card, the smart card becomes nonstandard (i.e. it must be made specially); in addition, the antenna must be tuned to the card chip hardware resistance and impedance, and for different chip models and manufacturers the tuning would be different, making it difficult to use an antenna for a smart card located off-card.
Embedding a dual-interface smart card in a mobile terminal is also problematic in case of transactions requiring user interaction, such as those in which the user must give a PIN to authorize a payment via the smart card, since then the dual interface card must communicate through both interfaces during the same transaction, or the ticketing system must have a separate communication path to the card and to the terminal interface of the mobile terminal. Allowing for communication through both interfaces is complex; at the point when user interaction is needed, the card application must wake up the mobile terminal to show the display text and ask for input, and the wake up requires an interrupt from the card (or else the mobile terminal must ask the card repeatedly whether the card needs any mobile terminal services). Proposals have been made where the ticketing system (instead of the smart card) communicates with the mobile terminal to prompt for a PIN, but these proposals make the ticketing system more complex and expensive.
What is needed is a way to include in a mobile terminal or other wireless terminal (e.g. a personal computer), a smart card, i.e. a memory or microprocessor smart card providing a smart card application (and so in addition to the functionality provided by a SIM card), that does not suffer from the above mentioned difficulties, such as the difficulty in making possible communicating with a user during a transaction involving the smart card, or providing a contactless interface (i.e. an RF antenna per ISO 14443), and ideally a way that allows using a standard smart card (as opposed to a dual-interface smart card with the antenna moved off-card).
Accordingly, in a first aspect of the invention, a wireless terminal is provided having a terminal interface, characterized in that the wireless terminal includes a smart card application host and also a smart card router, the smart card router responsive to radiofrequency (RF) communication signal issuing from a contactless smart card reader, for demodulating the RF communication signal and providing either a demodulated communication traffic signal routed to the smart card application host or a demodulated communication traffic signal routed to the terminal interface, the routing determined based on information conveyed by the RF communication signal.
In accord with the first aspect of the invention, the smart card application host may be either a contact smart card, a microcontroller residing in the wireless terminal, or a security component of the wireless terminal.
Also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the smart card router may also be responsive to unmodulated communication traffic provided by the smart card application host and may also be responsive to unmodulated communication traffic provided by the terminal interface, and in response to either may provide a modulated communication traffic signal for transmission to the contactless smart card reader. Further, the smart card router may comprise a card access module and router, a modulator/demodulator, an RF antenna, and a card reader chip, with the card access module and router coupled to the smart card application host via the card reader chip, and coupled to the terminal interface, and also coupled to the RF antenna via the modulator/demodulator, the RF antenna in turn radiatively coupled to the ticketing system.
Still also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, the smart card router provides logical channels for communication with different applications hosted by the smart card application host.
Yet still also in accord with the first aspect of the invention, in starting communications with the contactless smart card reader, the wireless terminal may report RF parameter messages in a format understandable to the contactless smart card reader so as to enable the communications, and further, the RF parameters so reported may indicate proprietary capabilities of the smart card application host. Also further, the RF parameters may be derived from data provided by an answer-to-reset message issued by the smart card application host.
In a second aspect of the invention, a method is provided for use by a wireless terminal in communicating with a contactless smart card reader, the wireless terminal including a smart card application host hosting at least one smart card application, the method characterized by: a step of receiving from the contactless smart card reader an RF communication signal pertinent to the at least one smart card application; a step of examining the received communication signal to determine where to route it, including possibly routing the communication signal to the at least one smart card application or to a terminal interface of the wireless terminal or to an RF antenna for radiative transmission to a system related to the at least one smart card application; and a step of routing the communication signal to the destination so determined.
In accord with the second aspect of the invention, the smart card application host may be either a contact smart card, a microcontroller residing in the wireless terminal, or a security component of the wireless terminal.
Also in accord with the second aspect of the invention, in routing the communication signal, logical channels may be used for communication with different applications hosted by the smart card application host.
Also in accord with the second aspect of the invention, in starting communications with the contactless smart card reader, the wireless terminal may report RF parameter messages in a format understandable to the contactless smart card reader so as to enable the communications. Further, the RF parameters so reported may indicate proprietary capabilities of the smart card application host. Also further, the RF parameters may be derived from data provided by an answer-to-reset message issued by the smart card application host.
With the invention, the antenna and RF circuitry are part of the mobile terminal and thus always tuned, and the smart card is a standard contact card (not a smart card with the antenna of the contactless interface moved off-card). With the arrangement provided by the invention, it is possible to use a SIM card or other, separate smart card distinct from the SIM card, to host smart card applications (or memory associated with applications). Smart cards come from many manufacturers even for a single operator, but as the tuning is not dependent on the card used, the many different kinds of chips and cards that might be used presents no problem.
Another advantage of the invention is that the need for user input can be detected from the message flow between the smart card application and a ticketing system (or other system with a card reader for interacting with the smart card) so that the wireless terminal can automatically ask for the user input (for a PIN for example) and pass the input to the smart card. It is also possible according to the invention for the ticketing system to command the wireless terminal directly (as opposed to having the wireless terminal monitor the communication traffic between the smart card and the ticketing system), and to have the command to the wireless terminal pass along the same RF communications path as communication traffic for the card; no separate RF communication path is needed between the ticketing system and the wireless terminal.